•  126
    What makes any agent a moral agent? Reflections on machine consciousness and moral agency
    with Joel Parthemore
    International Journal of Machine Consciousness 5 (2): 105-129. 2013.
    In this paper, we take moral agency to be that context in which a particular agent can, appropriately, be held responsible for her actions and their consequences. In order to understand moral agency, we will discuss what it would take for an artifact to be a moral agent. For reasons that will become clear over the course of the paper, we take the artifactual question to be a useful way into discussion but ultimately misleading. We set out a number of conceptual pre-conditions for being a moral a…Read more
  •  121
    Why the Turing test is ai's biggest blind Alley
    In Peter Millican & A. Clark (eds.), Machines and Thought, the Legacy of Alan Turing, Oxford University Press. 1996.
  •  62
    This paper follows directly from an earlier paper where we discussed the requirements for an artifact to be a moral agent and concluded that the artifactual question is ultimately a red herring. As...
  •  55
  •  51
    Computing machinery and morality
    AI and Society 22 (4): 551-563. 2008.
    Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technology widely used to support human decision-making. Current areas of application include financial services, engineering, and management. A number of attempts to introduce AI decision support systems into areas which more obviously include moral judgement have been made. These include systems that give advice on patient care, on social benefit entitlement, and even ethical advice for medical professionals. Responding to these developments raises a complex s…Read more
  •  48
    Oversold, unregulated, and unethical: Why we need to respond to robot nannies
    Interaction Studiesinteraction Studies Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems 11 (2): 290-294. 2010.
  •  17
    On Computable Morality An Examination of Machines
    In M. Anderson S. Anderson (ed.), Machine Ethics, Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 138. 2011.
  •  13
    International Journal of Machine Consciousness, Volume 06, Issue 02, Page 141-161, December 2014. This paper follows directly from an earlier paper where we discussed the requirements for an artifact to be a moral agent and concluded that the artifactual question is ultimately a red herring. As before, we take moral agency to be that condition in which an agent can appropriately be held responsible for her actions and their consequences. We set a number of stringent conditions on moral agency. A…Read more
  •  5
    The Turing test: Ai's biggest blind Alley?
    In Peter Millican & A. Clark (eds.), Machines and Thought, Oxford University Press. pp. 519-539. 1996.
  •  5
    This paper serves as introduction to a significantly longer paper in progress. It argues that, within the ethics community, the wider philosophical establishment and society in general, people have been far too lax about what to accept as morally “right” behaviour – far too quick to let themselves and, all too often, each other off the hook. By drawing comparisons to artefactual behaviour and the objections people raise to calling that behaviour the morally acceptable behaviour of authentic mora…Read more
  •  2
    Oversold, unregulated, and unethical
    Interaction Studies. Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systemsinteraction Studies / Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systemsinteraction Studies 11 (2): 290-294. 2010.